Sometimes, the past is placed in memory's storage like nuclear waste in a salt mine. For years, it rests there, imperceptibly radiating its content into a person's consciousness and waiting to be transported to the top in order to have its full contaminating impact. Even more frequently, memory – especially the collective memory of a family – is subject to continuous reconfiguration. A constant creative effort is made to adapt the past as it is remembered to the demands of the present. It is overwritten and rewritten, it is corrected, distorted, fragmented and sometimes even erased, depending on what needs to be documented or refuted, motivated or prevented. Marius von Mayenburg's new play The Stone will try to trace these processes using the example of a German family's history.

Ingo Berk, born in 1975, directed Mayenburg's play Parasiten (Parasites) at the Schauspielhaus in Zürich and the world premiere of his play Augenlicht (Eyesight) at the Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz in Berlin. Most recently, he has worked at theaters in Graz, Bonn, and Hannover; he lives in Berlin as a freelance director.

Coproduction with the Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz, Berlin, as part of
"Germany at 60 – Approaching an Uncomfortable Identity", supported by
the German Federal Cultural Foundation